Wednesday, December 28, 2011

christmas day.

I love having my parents come on Christmas. (Thank you, Delean, for being on call for Dad!) 


Lawson was so excited to show Grandpa his new remote control helicopter! But he promptly flew it on the roof. =)

This one was having a really hard time waiting for her baby sister to wake up from her nap. She did not love just having to look at all these presents and not open them!



Gretchen finally woke up and then sat like this on Grandma's lap while the other two opened presents. She was still pretty sleepy...


 This was one of those, "Oh!! I love it!! Wait... what is it?" moments. =)

And the one thing that Sophie was really, really wanting... roller skates!


Grandma finally started opening some of Gretchen's gifts for her...

She cracked a tiny smile when she saw her little cow family...



Seriously. How do you teach a kid to roller skate?



And yes... she's still in her jammies. (I might have been, too...) We didn't go to church. How awful is that? We planned on going, we talked about going, but when the time actually came... it just didn't happen. We were going to our church's 11:00 service and at 10:30, we had just gotten the Wii hooked up. Sophie was creating her Lalaloopsy school, Corey and Lawson were figuring out Super Mario, Gretchie was playing with her dollhouse and I was starting to get all stressed out, knowing that I was going to have to start nagging at everyone to get dressed and get around for church. I didn't want to be that mom right then. I believe 100% that the reason we celebrate Christmas is all about Jesus. But I also know that I wanted Christmas to be a fun and relaxing time for my family. And that wasn't going to happen if I had to start getting all naggy. I also realized that the main guilt I was having was because I was worried about what other people were going to think. A lot of people from our church read this blog... what would they think about seeing pictures of us in the afternoon, still in our pajamas?! And then I realized that worrying about what other people are going to think isn't a good reason to do anything.

So I asked my kids why we celebrate Christmas. And I asked them which was more important: presents or Jesus? (It might have taken Lawson a couple tries to get the answer right...) And then I decided that Jesus would still love us, even if we didn't go to church. In that moment, it was more important to me to spend the rest of the morning relaxing and loving on my sweet little family. In our house. In our pajamas. Even if it would earn me an "Amy Nicole..." when my mom came. =)









It was a perfect day. Quiet and cozy and relaxed and fun. Together with some of the people that we love the most. Every Christmas should be like this.

13 comments:

Joke said...

I love your blog. Of course it doesn't change Jesus' love for you if you don't go to church on Christmas Day. :) Our church didn't even have a service on Sunday. The Christmas service was on December 18th. Glad you got to relax in your pj's. ;) I did the same!

Kristin said...

I'm afraid I would have given you an Amy Nicole too. I'm mean and made mine wait till 11 am to open theirs!

The Boccias said...

Calico Critters are the cutest! Talia has a cat family and a camper for them...adorable. I also see you have intermingling going on; we have this mess of Calico Critters, princess figurines, Lalaloopsy minis, and Strawberry Shortcake figurines, all with tiny accessories. Sigh. ;)

Good luck with the skating.

Danielle said...

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your parents! I'm a little jealous you got to have such a fun day with them :)

Chad and Jody said...

roller skates are so much fun! Have lots of ice packs on hand for those knees!

Jen Ekeland said...

It's ok Amy, we didn't make it to church Sunday either...and I felt guilty too! We didn't make it partly because some little three year old ate too many sweets at grandma and grandpa's the day before and had a tummy ache the whole evening the night before :-/

Marc, Sarah, Luke, and Kate said...

I do go to your church (I know you know that), & I'm certainly not judging you because you weren't there. You weren't the only ones not there. And, going for legalistic reasons certainly doesn't make it right either. It looks like you had a fun, relaxing Christmas morning with your family :)

Rich and Carolyn Dewey said...

Looks like it was the perfect day!

Jodi@ underthegeorgiasun.com said...

I had that guilt too. (for not going to Church) still do.

And I'm just like you, I'm wondering what everyone at church will think. But you know what, oh well.

thank you for posting this. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Jodi@ underthegeorgiasun.com said...

oh, LOVE the pictures!!! :o)

looks like everyone had fun! :o)

Butterball said...

Church on Christmas Day is next to impossible! We actually made it to the Christmas Eve service this year (totally not judging you, promise! I just know that it would have taken an act of God- AND Congress- to get all 18 (yes, I said 18) of us to get to church post-Santa). Glad you had such a wonderful day with your fam!

Brittany said...

last picture. absolutely priceless.

Meg B. said...

we didn't go either, we spent the day with my parents much like you did. the day was quiet, spent with family and we liked it that way. Happy New Year, enjoy.